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War of the Three Gods
The War of the Three Gods (490 - c. 525 SR) (391 - c. 426 RM) was a conflict between the Ardavai Exatai and its successor state the Karapeshai Exatai against an alliance of the Holy Moti Empire, the states that would later become Farubaida o Caroha, and the Evyni Empire. It resulted in the destruction of the Ardavai Exatai, the foundation of the Karapeshai and their conquest of the Evyni, the conquest of the Sesh by the Moti, and the foundation of the Farubaida o Caroha. Background The War of the Three Gods has its roots in the War of the Crimson Elephant and its aftermath. Third Gaci's destruction of the Exatai of the Satar, and the subsequent reconquest of the Sesh by the Accan Redeemer Macrinus sowed a legacy of bitter enmity between the Satar and their southern neighbors, the Uggor. Over the course of the next two hundred years, neither side was willing to make any real attempt at peace. A dozen wars between the two further estranged them, while Seshweay rebellions in the Sesh Delta led to greater and greater reprisals by the Ardavai against its slave population. The situation constantly spiraled downward, until by 490 it was at a new breaking point. The catalyst for war had little to do with this great border war, however; instead, it lay in a relatively minor incident between the Prince of the Scroll Nephrax-ta-Delphis and the king of the tiny city-state of Neruss -- Nephrax demanded the surrender of his neighbor, and planned a quick campaign to capture and pillage the city. The king of Neruss refused to be cowed, and sent secret emissaries to the Ayasi Fifth Gaci of the Holy Moti Empire, who raised a still larger coalition consisting of the Evyni Empire and much of Helsia as well. =Initial Attacks= The first foray of Nephrax met almost no resistance before it came to the walls of Neruss. Its king, perhaps recognizing that he could not possibly challenge the Satar in the field, had evacuated his people to a nearby island of the Empire of Dremai, and watched patiently as the Satar systematically burnt his fields and raised siege towers, planning to take their time in reducing the city. Unfortunately for Nephrax, he received word from the Redeemer Vespelian that the Moti had begun to attack through the Kothai in the south. The resumption of hostilities, in the context of two hundred years of war, was not overly alarming; these passes had been fortified for hundreds of years, and they would hold while Nephrax returned with his army. But all this turned into a nightmare, as the detachment Nephrax sent under Itarephas was blindsided at the Battle of Haveha by the forces of Fifth Gaci, who had led his army through the desert city of Gyza (also hostile to the Satar). The Moti army utterly thrashed the Satar in that battle, setting upon the garrisons in the Parda Hills and the northern Sesh and forcing them back towards the city of Jania. The Ardavai Redeemer Vespelian died somewhere in the midst of this, leaving the succession open. Simultaneously, the Evyni Empire massed their forces under the general Naimayr, taking much of the northern Accan region of the Exatai, including the city of Acca itself. =The Conflict Intensifies= The Ascension of Jahan As the campaigning season ended and still no Redeemer had been chosen, the Ardavai turned to a people who had more often been foe than friend -- the Vithana steppe confederacy. Signing a surprising alliance, the Satar acclaimed the Vithana Redeemer Jahan as their own as well in a grand ceremony at Magha. Promising to restore the Satar lands, Jahan led a quick attack into the north, driving the Evyni out almost as soon as they had arrived, and retaking the region of Acca for the Exatai. Leaving a series of garrisons, he turned south again, where his cavalry joined with an enormous force of Satar levies from the Satara region, and marched to meet the forces of Fifth Gaci north of the Kothai. The Feast of Kargan Simultaneously, combined forces from the Empire of Dremai, the Empire of Helsia, Faerouhaiaou, and Neruss, in addition to contingents of Seshweay rebels, advanced on the garrison force under Nephrax at the crucial strategic center of Kargan. The city had been constructed with state-of-the-art fortifications, quite probably the best in the world at the time. Nephrax settled in for a long siege, hoping to weather the storm until his Redeemer could win out in the south. With Helsian command of the sea, however, the Satar quickly ran low on foodstuffs. In an unprecedented and now infamous move, Nephrax ordered the systematic massacre of the Aitahist population of the city, salting the resulting meat, and intending to survive on it for decades to come. The Battle of Karhat The resulting battle, near the small town of Karhat, lasted three days: a bloody, messy affair. Initial Satar attempts to drive off the cavalry on the Moti flanks were reasonably successful, but they had to support the Satar center against the assault of the Moti elephant corps. Satar warhorns startled the creatures, but neither side could quite gain the upper hand, forcing a Satar withdrawal, as the Redeemer Jahan had wanted to avoid a battle of attrition at all costs. The second day proceeded rather similarly, with both generals fearing to over-commit. On the third day, the Satar, led by Jahan and the Prince of the Arrow, Satores, attempted after many skirmishes to break the Moti line of infantry and elephants with one last cavalry charge, but when the breakthrough failed to materialize and the battle turned into a single cataclysmic melee, the superior training of the Moti won out, and the Satar force withdrew with heavy losses, albeit in fairly good order. =The Passing of an Age= The Conquest of the Sesh Karhat ruined any real hopes of an outright Satar victory. Shortly after the battle, the newly invigorated allied forces launched an enormous assault on Kargan, using a veritable menagerie of siege weapons, combined with treachery on the part of an Opulensi contingent the Satar had hoped would resupply the city (which was at that point suffering greatly from an outbreak of scurvy). The allies, horrified by the results of the Feast of Kargan, leveled the city. In the ensuing months, Fifth-Gaci and his followers secured the rest of the Sesh. For their part, the Moti were helped in the north by a renewed Seshweay rebellion, while in the south, the city of Magha fell to an assault of unprecedented size, involving some of the most spectacular siege engines devised in the world up to that point. The sack of the city shortly thereafter destroyed many of the most precious works of Satar art and literature -- including the great domed Matraxas. The Farubaida o Caroha The flight of Jahan and his Satar forces northward allowed the Helsians and Seshweay time to rebuild their society. In a sudden era of mutual goodwill and collective anti-Satar hatred, the Helsians and Seshweay united under the banner of rebuilding the city of Kargan (Caroha, in the Faronun tongue), and established a federation of multiple states there, uniting Faronun and Seshweay foreign policy, with an eye towards continuing the war against the Satar. The Karapeshai Exatai For their part, the Satar eschewed the dramatics that had plagued them after the War of the Crimson Elephant. Jahan led his armies into Acca, where they wintered, an army without a home. Eventually, the Satar and Vithana turned against the one foe they still had a real hope of outright defeating -- the Evyni to the north, which they invaded shortly thereafter. =Endgame= The Fall of the Evyni Empire Striking in several prongs, the Satar took the Evyni almost entirely by surprise. A force under Prince Elikas-ta-Tisatar shattered several Evyni armies near Allusille, while Jahan and his eventual successor Avetas took the holy city of Anyais, putting the new Evyni Thorsrdyn, Isathmaeyr to flight beneath the city walls. The Satar pursued their foes all the way to Allusille, where a heroic last stand by Isathmaeyer ended with his betrayal by a clever Ming quem, Zys, who took command of the Ming contingent of the Evyni army and proclaimed himself Emperor of the Einan. Simultaneously, the Accan Arto Rutarri revolutionized the Satar naval force, taking the isles of Ritti and easily defeating the outdated Evyni fleet in a series of battles. With supremacy on land and on sea, Satar victory seemed assured -- all that remained was to consolidate the conquest of their new land. Satores' Rebellion Absent from Jahan's force, however, was the Prince of the Arrow Satores, who refused to abandon his ancestral lands around Yashidim. After a series of failed negotiations attempting to establish an autonomous princedom under Ayasi Fifth-Gaci, he led a guerrilla campaign out of the passes of the Kothai, causing numerous problems for the Uggor occupation force, including the assassination of at least one governor, and the deaths of several minor Moti forces. The rebellion only began to die down when the Ayasi offered pardons to every Satar involved, though it continued in a more minor fashion through the end of the war. The Accan Expedition Meanwhile, as the Satar continued their conquest of the north, the nascent Farubaida and the Holy Moti Empire decided to launch an enormous effort right at the heartland of Karapeshai power, hopefully bringing the entire chaotic edifice down. With eighty thousand troops and over a hundred ships, the expedition seemed poised for success -- it would sail over the Kern Sea and take the city of Acca out from under the Exatai's nose. Satar spies got wind of the attack, however, and a severe lack of planning, combined with tremendous hubris on the part of the Farubaidan fleet, meant they arrived on the western shore in a chaotic fashion: disorganized, undersupplied, and utterly unprepared. At the same time, the newly proclaimed Letoratta (Lord of the Sea) Arto Rutarri led a combined Satar and Gallasene force southward, taking the allies by surprise in the Battle of the Bays. There, Rutarri demolished his opponent, leaving the eighty thousand men stranded in a foreign land, where they were steadily whittled away by the forces of the new Redeemer Avetas until they had fled from Satar lands in a brutal coastal march through Oscadia. Peace The fiasco of the Accan Expedition, coupled with the Satar distraction in the north as they attempted to finish off the remnants of the Evyni and faced a rising challenge from the Dual Empire in the northeast, meant that all sides involved had little taste for continuing the conflict. The Satar recognized the conquest of the Sesh and returned the various prisoners they had taken off of Acca, while the allies withdrew to a line just north of the River Sesh. The Farubaidans abandoned their northern-focused foreign policy, instead focusing on the Lovi Sea and a conflict with the Opulensi Empire, while the Moti consolidated their new gains, struggled against the rebellion of Satores, and dealt with a variety of domestic challenges. After some thirty years, peace had finally arrived. Unfortunately for much of the population, it would resume quickly, with the War of the Empty Throne. Category:Wars Category:Satar Category:Uggor Category:Farou Category:Seshweay Category:Avaimi